R.I.P. Michael Jackson
I haven’t posted for a while… but I couldn’t not post today. Michael Jackson’s impact will probably only really hit home now, posthumously. But this is the man who was the first ever black person to be played on MTV, in the days when MTV wouldn’t play black music. This is the man who made black music acceptable in the mainstream… on a global level. This man has inspired an entire generation of musicians…
Here’s a piece I wrote today in The Guardian, shortly after it was confirmed that Michael Jackson had died.
Michael Jackson, rest in peace
Michael Jackson’s bizarre life mirrored his internal turmoil over his identity. If his brand was sullied, his talent wasn’t
Michael Jackson, who died today at the age of 50, was the biggest pop icon of my generation. He was also undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary, and certainly the best selling, performers in the history of global popular culture. His contribution to and influence on popular culture will live on for generations to come.
I remember going to see his Bad tour at London’s Wembley stadium, at the age of nine, with my dad. Watching him dance and moonwalk across the stage was an event which still counts as one of the most memorable and exhilarating performances that I’ve ever experienced. If there’s one thing Michael Jackson knew how to do extremely well, it was to put on a show.
Unfortunately, the show extended far beyond the stage and the studio. Starting out as a cute and innocent black boy from Gary, Indiana as part of the Jackson 5, he then became a handsome adolescent and good-looking twenty-something known as the King of Pop. However, as his fame grew Jackson’s life began to unravel, becoming its own tragic performance.
At first Jackson’s external aspect began to mirror his internal turmoil over his identity. As his skin colour changed rapidly from dark brown to an eventual and unnerving translucent colour, his face also morphed dramatically, becoming virtually unrecognizable from that of the person we were first introduced to as a child and teenager.
Several allegations of child abuse at his fairytale home Neverland Ranch followed and other, disturbing features of his life – such as Bubbles, the monkey he said was his best friend, and rumours that he slept in an oxygen tank – provided sensationalist fodder for tabloids and gossip magazines, fuelling the public’s voyeurism.
There are those in the world who long for fame and fortunate, but I am sure that few would welcome the level of fame that Jackson had. He was essentially a prisoner on earth, a man whose entire life was lived in the public eye. As the most famous and recognisable man in the world, he was unable to walk freely on the street, to travel without security or to do much of anything without his every action and move coming under public scrutiny. This became even more pronounced after the child abuse case in which the unworldly details of his life were exposed to the public and it became clear that he was a boy trapped in a man’s body.
Much of the controversy in Jackson’s life was a result of his own actions. But there’s no doubt that the public’s thirst for sensationalism was also to blame for his alienation from everyday life. His surely suffered from his inability to grow up and experience the various stages of life that are necessary for any person’s development, including that of the most famous man on earth.
While his death at such a relatively young age came out of the blue and is certainly sad, it is – shocking, sensational, headline-grabbing – entirely in keeping with Michael Jackson’s life.
However, as people ponder Michael Jackson’s legacy, there’s no doubt his music and his work is what really touched our hearts. Virtually every major pop artist at present draws from his influence. Every person in the world, including children who probably weren’t even born when Michael Jackson was in his heyday, know who he is. He was a pioneer in making black culture acceptable long before Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama. His music shaped our lives.
Michael Jackson was a controversial figure. But although his brand was sullied, his talent wasn’t. That’s something we’ll never forget. RIP Michael Jackson.
How to hold Obama accountable
I have been accused of being an Obama butt-kisser. Apparently I am not critical enough of him.
There have been some people, especially in the black community, who feel that it is their duty to criticize the president at every turn. This, they believe, keeps him ‘accountable’ and helps him to do his job properly. Except it doesn’t.
There’s a reason why I don’t spend my time poking holes in what the president does (I make an effort not to poke holes in what people do, period). First of all, I believe strongly that we and our leaders are one and the same - we exist in a reciprocal relationship. Without the support of the people, no leader would be where he/she is and without support after election that leader is unlikely to succeed. Similarly a leader who doesn’t support the people fails the people and him/herself. Therefore, we need to empower our leaders rather than cutting them down.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ask questions or expect someone to fulfill on their promises. However, there are ways to hold leaders accountable without poking holes in the good. There is very little that’s constructive in the way that we comment on our leaders these days, nor is much commentary/criticism intended to be constructive. It’s usually intended just to look for what’s wrong.
Obama’s Cairo speech: America & Islam look to the future, together
As you can see, I thought the speech that Obama gave in Cairo (which is in Africa by the way, not the Middle East) was excellent. President Obama clearly realizes that in order to create something new, in order to transform a situation, you have to start from a place of nothing-ness. It is impossible to create from a space where where there are pre-existing feelings, thoughts, misconceptions and judgements. Try and build a house on a foundation like that and you can be guaranteed that it will crumble quickly.
The point of this speech was, as I said in the CNN interview, to wipe the slate clean and start again. He took everything that has happened previously and put it in the past where it belongs. He then set out some possibilities for the future. That’s step number one - the most vital step - in solving ANY conflict.
Step 2 will, of course, be taking action. I’m looking forward to that but for now I think this is a very good start. Hopefully when the action is being taken - and for it to work - it will be from the position of possibility that the President has laid out and that those he has to work with agree with.
Sonia Sotomayor: How can you judge her when you don’t know what she said?
In life, the context is decisive. That is, things only truly make sense based on the context within which they are said. If you don’t know the context to something you cannot accurately understand it. It’s really that simple.
People are still banging on about Sonia Sotomayor’s comments infering that she is biased/prejudiced/racist for saying that her perspective as an old Latina woman would be better than that of a white male. Except that’s not actually what she said.
What she actually said was:
In our private conversations, Judge Cedarbaum has pointed out to me that seminal decisions in race and sex discrimination cases have come from Supreme Courts composed exclusively of white males. I agree that this is significant but I also choose to emphasize that the people who argued those cases before the Supreme Court which changed the legal landscape ultimately were largely people of color and women. I recall that Justice Thurgood Marshall, Judge Connie Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to the federal bench, and others of the NAACP argued Brown v. Board of Education. Similarly, Justice Ginsburg, with other women attorneys, was instrumental in advocating and convincing the Court that equality of work required equality in terms and conditions of employment.
Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O’Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O’Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
It may seem pedantic to put the entire quote in there, but it’s necessary. I do so because when you read the last few lines (underlined) in the context of what Sotomayor said in its entirety, you see that she did not say that a Latina woman is generally likely to reach a better conclusion than a white man. That indeed would have been questionable.
She said that in certain circumstances - particularly those involving people of colour, minorities or women - an old Latina woman is more likely to reach a better conclusion by virtue of being able to identify with and truly understand the perspective of those who stand in front of her - because she has lived that life.
This is not hardly as contentious as what she has been reported as saying, which is: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male…” But of course that makes a nice soundbite doesn’t it?
However, the majority of people are sitting down arguing over this soundbite, not having taken 5 minutes of their time to read the entire speech (actually an excellent and insightful one) and find out what she actually said rather than just what they read or think that she said.
We as people are very lazy. We simply want to consume information that’s handed to us without questioning its validity, and then we complain that we’ve been duped.
Of course this is nothing new. The media LOVES soundbites… and we love to pick them up and run with them. (Remember Jeremiah Wright anyone?) But I’d suggest (as part of the media as well as a consumer of it) that we don’t dumb ourselves down in this way.
Be informed and seek out the sources so that when you’re getting all riled up over some comment made by someone or the other, you’ll actually KNOW what you - and they - are talking about.
Is Sotomayor pick a bad case of identity politics?
I have a lot to say about Sotomayor and the whole ‘identity politics’ debate. Personally I think the whole ‘identity politics’ argument is BS and I wish her all the very best.
For now, watch me debating the issue on CNN. A post on identity politics is to come…
When “racist” is an overused word
Questions I’m pondering at the moment:
How do you define a racist?
How do you define racism?
What would you say is the difference between racism and discrimination?
What’s reverse racism?
Words like ‘racist’ and ‘racism’ are bandied around very easily these days - to the point where they start to lose meaning. So I’m interested in how other people define them…
Africa as told by Africans
One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was about my frustration at how the west continues to perpetuate stereotypes of Africa. I admit that I haven’t written as much about Africa as I’d like to since.
However, the criticism that has been levelled at economist Dambisa Moyo over her recent book Dead Aid - in which she writes that aid to Africa hurts rather than helps - has renewed my passion for writing about Africa.
Those who have been vocally anti-Ms Moyo are generally not African. They are people and organizations like Bob Geldof’s One aid organization (who are on some kind of anti-Dambisa Moyo crusade at the moment going as far as to try to mobilize Africans to speak out against her) who seem to be unable and/or unwilling to welcome new information and perspectives about Africa from Africans.
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Malcolm X: Born May 19th 1925
Yesterday, May 19th, would have been Malcolm X’s 84th birthday.
I have a few comments to make about the relevance of some of Malcolm X’s theories in this day and age, but for now I just want to salute him for what he contributed to the world.
And here’s one of his most powerful speeches:
Black Abortion: is it genocide?
African-American women are disproportionately more likely to have an abortion than any other racial group. While abortion among white women constitutes around 10 in 1000 cases, with black women it’s around 50 in 1000.
With centres like Planned Parenthood moving into urban areas and focusing more on African-Americans, some have claimed that this is a form of ethnic cleansing or genocide and that abortion is being touted as just another service for black people, just like going to the corner store. The National Pro Black Life Union believes that abortion is a form of racism.
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The abortion debate commences
This week I wrote a piece in The Guardian about Obama’s (excellent) commencement speech at Notre Dame (and you can also see me talking about it on CNN here)…This is my conclusion:
Perhaps by showing that he is prepared to listen to and engage with all points of view, Obama’s speech will mark a departure from the simplistic manner in which debates about abortion have been framed. Perhaps people will see that engaging in a more unified debate about abortion, just like debates about race or indeed any other sensitive topics, is what will lead to a truly unified America.
I would love to see, as the president suggested, more compromise that actually leads to fruitful dialogue rather than two camps - which are probably less in opposition to each other than they think - being mired in their own, very fixed idea of how things *should* be according to their own world view. The world just can’t operate well like that.
What I don’t understand is why you have to be considered either pro-life or pro-choice, as if the two are mutually exclusive? I am pro-life: I believe in the sanctity of life (which means I also oppose the death penalty, as many people who claim to be pro-life, interestingly enough, don’t and I am also strongly anti-war).
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